PPL Corp. CEO William Spence reassured investors Wednesday that PPL will continue to grow, and perhaps more importantly to shareholders, provide healthy dividends after dumping its power generation and supply business.

The company's spinoff of its power plants and energy marketing division into a new entity called Talen Energy is set to close on June 1.

At that time, PPL shareholders are expected to receive roughly one share in the publicly traded Talen for every eight shares of PPL stock they own. They will keep all their shares of PPL stock.

"We will be maintaining the dividend through the completion of our supply spin," Spence said at the company's annual shareholders meeting in Allentown. "Further, our 100 percent rate-regulated business model moving forward provides both future earnings and dividend growth potential."

For the current quarter, that dividend will be $0.3725 per share, the company announced Wednesday.

Talen Energy stock is not expected to pay a dividend. It started trading Monday on a when-issued basis. For the most part, that means large institutional investors can commit now to buy the stock at a given price when it issues on June 2.

That commitment price, trading under the symbol TLN.WI, was up 3.2 percent Wednesday to $23.48 cents a share. It opened Monday at $27.50, and hit a low of $19.85 before heading back up Tuesday.

PPL stock was up 22 cents to $34.85 a share Wednesday.

In his speech, Spence highlighted an 8.5 percent increase in earnings from PPL's regulated utilities in 2014, the primary business segment that will remain after the Talen spinoff, and projected annual earnings growth of 4 percent to 6 percent through 2017.

When the Talen Energy spinoff is complete, PPL will strictly be a utility company operating seven electric and gas utilities that include PPL Electric Utilities, Louisville Gas and Electric and Western Power Distribution in the United Kingdom, providing power and natural gas to 10 million customers in seven states.

Spence said the company plans to continue to invest heavily in its U.S. infrastructure to improve reliability, pumping $2.3 billion into capital investments in 2014, particularly in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

"While we invested more than $15 billion in capital improvements over the past five years, we plan to invest $18 billion from 2015 to 2019," he said.

At the meeting, shareholders approved a measure allowing shareholders to call special meetings, but voted down proposals to require disclosure of the company's political spending and to produce a climate change and greenhouse gas reduction report.

Energy companies such as PPL have seen a growing number of climate change related shareholder resolutions in recent years, with varying results.

"PPL does have a lot of coal-fired generation," said Dan Bakal, director of electric power for CERES, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable business practices. "They are going to need to figure out how to transition it and basically meet some emissions reduction targets. Shareholders want to know how they are thinking about that."

Shareholders approved executive pay for 2014 that included a $1.3 million increase in total compensation for Spence, according to proxy statements. He earned total compensation of $13.4 million in 2014, compared with $12.1 million in 2013. Much of the increase was based on incentives.

Future Talen CEO Paul Farr earned $5.2 million as PPL's executive vice president and chief financial officer, up $1.2 million over his 2013 pay.

Spence's speech did not address the question on the minds of many in Allentown: Will Talen keep its headquarters in the city after the spinoff is complete? PPL Energy Supply, the division that will be joined with Riverstone Holdings LLC to form Talen, occupies The Plaza at PPL Center in the 800 block of Hamilton Street. Its lease there ends in 2018.

About 500 PPL employees who are expected to become Talen workers after June 1 work in the building. A chunk of the company's state tax payments are diverted to cover debt service on the city's new arena.